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Ford Racing has sights set on 1,000th career NASCAR race victory

June 10, 2013

David Ragan, who won at Talladega, owns one of the two NASCAR Sprint Cup victories for Ford Racing this season. Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

Ford Racing has just two Sprint Cup victories this year: Carl Edwards at Phoenix in February and David Ragan at Talladega in May. That pales beside the seven Chevrolet victories and Toyota's five, three of them by former Ford star Matt Kenseth. To Jamie Allison, director of Ford Racing, that 7-5-2 scorecard isn't what he expected when the 36-race season opened at Daytona Beach in February.

“In the first 14 races, we haven't had the performance we expected coming out of the gate,” he said on a Tuesday teleconference call. “There are opportunities to lead more laps and be there at the end, and to contend. But until all those are happening in our program across our teams -- not specific to one team but across all teams -- that will be the true measure of the strength and performance of our abilities. We have some work to do and we know exactly what we have to tackle.”

On the other hand: Ford driver Trevor Bayne recently gave Ford its 200th all-time Nationwide Series victory, moving the manufacturer to 999 victories in NASCAR's top three series.

“It's really just begging for one more [victory] to get to the amazing milestone of 1,000 NASCAR wins,” Allison added on Tuesday. “That could be the catalyst for our momentum as we enter the halfway point of the regular season. All feels great and we can't wait for this weekend at [Michigan]. I'm excited for an exciting win on Saturday and/or Sunday.”

Ragan's upset victory with Front Row Motorsports notwithstanding, most of Ford's success is expected to come from Edwards, Greg Biffle and rookie Ricky Stenhouse Jr. at Roush Fenway Racing, with Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano at Penske Racing, and with Bayne at Wood Brothers Racing. (Richard Petty Motorsports is the only other front-line Ford organization). Biffle and Logano finished top 10 last weekend at Pocono and Edwards (second), Keselowski (ninth) and Biffle (10th) are top 10 in points after 14 of 12 regular-season races.

Allison feels Ford's four major organizations know what they need, and he's working closely with each of them. Penske Racing is new to Ford Racing and the understandable question is how well the former Dodge team is working with long-time Ford loyalists.

“The best analogy is that [Ford Racing] is a family,” he said. “We live with our teams. We eat, breathe and wake up with them. When you bring another member into a family you have a blended family. We all know in real life what happens when you bring new members to a family. It takes a little time for the family to act cohesively. It's going to take a little time [but] there's not a lot of patience by fans or by us, and there's not a lot of patience by teams. Everybody expects immediate results, and that's our expectation, too.

“We have the makeup of greatness, we have the makeup of great teams, champion drivers and crew chiefs and great engineering pedigree. We'll address the issues we have identified and advance our program more cohesively. We know what it takes to win in NASCAR. The fastest car often wins, and in the case of Pocono last weekend it was the 48 (Jimmie Johnson) that checked out and was the class of the field. If you break it down, with Carl leading the first handful of laps and running second into the 70-or so lap mark and Keselowski running top-five or top-seven. Obviously, you have to do everything right. You have to be fast and have great pit stops and make sure you don't make any mistakes.

“We had a couple of issues with Carl and Brad that took a couple of fast cars from being able to run for the end. Biffle made his way through and then Logano made his way through. Really if you look at it, Biffle, Carl, Brad and Logano are strong top-two, top-three, top-four and top-five cars. Circumstantially we didn't end up winning at Pocono. That speaks to the fact that we were in contention and have fast cars. Throughout the season I can point to moments we were in contention to win. We are halfway through the regular season and are addressing the issues. Hopefully, we'll have a little stronger performance the second half and be ready for the Chase.”

Allison started working on that the day after Biffle and Logano were the only top-10 Ford finishers at Pocono. On Monday, he met with Ford's lead drivers, and with team owners Jack Roush and Roger Penske. He said they identified projects based on the analysis of the gap that exists (with other manufacturers). “Please accept that [generality] because getting into specific areas we're tackling in a world that relies on competition is not conducive,” he said. “I am sorry, but we can't get into that level of detail on these forums.”

But Allison did give some insight into the working relationship between Penske Racing and Roush Fenway Racing… and, by extension, RPM and Wood Brothers. “We say Monday through Friday is preparation that goes into understand and preparing for what happens on Saturday and Sunday,” he explained. “That's a place where there could be a joint effort. When it comes to aerodynamics, the cars have a common Fusion body. There are opportunities for collaboration when it comes to the aero models.

“When it comes to engines, they all have the same engines powered by Roush Yates Ford engines. When it comes to the development and input and feedback and some of the advance work, that's another area for collaboration. The area that stays for teams to manage is the racing, making calls, setups prescribed by crew chiefs and things like that. What happens on Saturday and Sunday are the responsibility and the autonomy of the teams. The third part is a critical need for simulation. That's an area Ford Motor Company leads in offering teams the tools and software to develop analysis that guides them in establishing setup for various conditions. That's another area for collaboration.

“But you can't have an addition to a family and expect everything to operate as it did before. We really do need to just give it a little time to allow for the blended, broader family to come together more cohesively; to get comfortable with each other and allow for more synergy coming out of working together. It takes a little time. Those are not really why we are where we are right now. There are more pragmatic, foundational platform relational elements we are addressing.

“There is a time and a place for everything, and obviously coming out of the gate you have to let the circumstances shape you and direct you to the right place to add new processes. Coming out of the gate was certainly not the place. If you look at the season, there were moments and times where the performance of one team versus another was not directly related to a common cause. We needed to let the season proceed. Over the last two weeks, the time was right to convene and agree on what the teams have gone through, the opportunities to work together and the processes we can lead around the platform. It is a long way of telling you the time is now to address some of the gaps that we had.”

As for how far Ford Racing has come since Penske Racing debuted its Fusion in the Daytona 500: “I would say we were on a scale of six to seven [on working together] at the beginning of the season,” Allison said. “We have been progressing and based on the meetings we had Monday, I can see that things will be in the area of 8-9 now.”